By Jack Mangrove
With the rush of the school holidays upon us the amount of boat traffic on the Noosa River has greatly increased. Getting out early is the key.
Fishing the mouth of the river, the Frying Pan is the place to get a great feed of summer whiting, chasing whiting on surface lures has to be some of the best fun you can have standing up; these feisty little fish punch well above their weight and are great on light gear.
The best grounds are the shallow sand bank and bars on the incoming tide, with the wind at your back if possible you will be able to cover a lot more ground.
Elsewhere in the river, Woods Bays has again been the place to be with some nice tailor and trevally reported as they chase the bait in on the incoming tide, soft plastics, and pilchards have been responsible for a lot of the captures, surface lures again first thing in the morning have also worked a treat. Up river the jack are also out to play, a bit of fresh water in the system tends to upset the bait fish and the jacks can’t help themselves, surface and suspending lures along the edges first thing in the morning and diving lures, paddle vibs and soft plastic in the deeper water as the sun rises is the way to target the red devils.
Flathead are plentiful, with the lower sections of the river producing nice fish on soft plastics, live and dead baits and even trolled lures. With all the fresh water in the system the crabs will also head down-stream looking for a little more salt. This is the time to get the pots out; they are out of the holes and on the move!
There is nothing more attractive to a muddy than a bit of fresh mullet, remember your size and bag limit of 10 per person, you can only take the bucks and they must make size 15cm across the carapace.
With light wind and moderate swells last Saturday, the offshore crew headed out in numbers. Jew Shoal has been a hot spot for sweetlip and smaller snapper, up towards Double Island there have been some stonker snapper with pearl perch and cobia also in the mix. North Reef has seen anglers getting a great bag including big Maori and the Holy Grail red emperor.
Sunshine reef has seen some good coral trout come over the side, trout also featured high on a lot of angler’s hit lists; to be successful with trout you have to fish close to the reef, so forget the Paternoster rig and use a running sinker rig, yes you will do a bit of gear but you will also improve your hook up rate.
On the beach, the tailor just keep on coming, Noosa’s North Shore is one of the hot spots with the area north of Teewah the prime area. Jewies are high on the hit list of most beach anglers and the southern beaches around Coolum and Marcoola have seen a couple of captures. Fresh mullet, local squid and large clumps of beach worms have all made their mark. Fishing any of the gutters on the beach will see dart, whiting, bream and flathead, cast to the back of the gutter and roll the bait back into the gutter under the white water – prawns, worms, small pillies and flesh baits like mullet and salted bonito should see a result.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
